Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Andrill project Notes By Cassie

I would hate to be in Antarctica because it is -20.6 but at least they
have a room and it is 18 degrees. Is there a risk of cracking the ice?
Yes
the ice constantly cracks they have to make sure that it doesn't move
and they have special equipment, as the ice warms up it cracks.

What
preparations have been made for drilling to get underway?
They started
planing for this trip for 8 years, they have to drill in a certain
place, the site that are working on there is a team of 10 and they
started working on moving the equipment and they were moving equipment
in-40 degrees they

How much time have you spent in Antarctica
and has working there changed a lot since you first went there?
The guy
that they are talking to he has been working there for 20 years. Whats
changed? Scott base has been completely
rebuilt and communication has bee fix heaps and they only got a couple
of minutes a week if they were lucky, people were taking Advent of the
Continent, hey are not allowed to leave any rubbish they have to take
it all back to new Zealand

What
has been the warmest temperature in Antarctica?
He can't answer that
very well and some places it only get to -10 as the high the thing that
he is saying is the

How does the drill reach 1000m? it is quite a complex job. To do it they have to core it by using a diamond drill

What
information are you hoping to find out and do you expect this to be
different to previous drill core information?
the project has two main jobs the first one is poliotoligy the other job is to see how the way Antarctica is formed so far they have had great work

How
many different nationalities of scientists are there?
Do you all get
along and do you all use the same methods even though you are from
different countries? there are four nations us Italy
and the Germans the language of science is mostly English science
methodology scientists get n really well because they all do it the
same way.

How do you get the air bags under the sea ice to
support the drill rig?
the rig ways up to 200 tones what they attempt
to do is to put air bags to keep the rig up the drill holes and then
put the air bags udder the water.

What
are your hours of work, weekends, breaks and holidays etc for this type
of work?
when they start drilling they work 24/7 and they work 12 hours
a day they get breaks when they spell out people only one or two people
can have a break at a time.

Do you use the same drill bits to
drill through ice and rock and how often do you have to change them?

What are the drill bits made of?the main way hat they drill the ice is
to
heat up some water is to put it on the water and put pressure on it and
it cuts a hole in the ice.each diamond drill bite that is made of
diamond.

What do you miss most when working in Antarctica? children and wife the most they have got used to him going to Antarctica for a long time.

Why does the sea riser need to be straight? if it is not strait they will keep going down until the engine won't take anymore.

Do
you need any special skills to work at the drilling place, if so what
skills?
they have 4 tension who some of team are still ate uni.

Has
drilling ever had to be halted for any reason and are there people who
are against drilling in such a pristine environment?
yes it constantly gets stoped,
they often get the drill bits breaking. they have already Had couple of
breakdowns. yes there are people that are against drilling in
Antarctica.

Has
the drilling process been as successful as you wanted it to be?
last
year they drilled a hole of over 1000 meters under water each year they
have improved there drilling it is not about the ice it is about the core.

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